Three new bridging complexes of rare earth and cobalt cluster were synthesized and characterized via ICP, IR and TG techniques. The structure of the complexes was speculated as: two rare earth atoms were bridged with four CF3COO-, and rare earth atoms were coordinated with cobalt carbonyl clusters to form a steady structure. Application of the complexes as the catalyst precursors was explored for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The study showed that the bridging complexes of rare earth and cobalt cluster had large molecular size and were difficult to enter pore path of γ-Al2O3, so they were dispersed on the surface of γ-Al2O3 support. In addition, the performance of Co(Ce)/ γ-Al2O3 was the best among the catalysts with complex as precursor and maintained 77.7% CO conversion at 220 oC for 80 operation hours.
